Welcome to the Peak to Valley training program – a comprehensive pre-season fitness program that will help you become a stronger skier or snowboarder and prevent injury this year on the slopes.  Every month, we will post new programs for you to follow so please stay tuned at the start of each month for your new programs.  The training plan is well thought out, starting with simpler exercises at lower intensities and progressing toward more complex activities at higher intensities at the start of winter.

This is called the Peak to Valley Training (PTV) Program because it peaks in February at the same time as the annual Peak to Valley ski race on Whistler’s Creekside.  You don’t have to be competitive to use this program – everyone should use it to get into shape for the ski season!  For the competitive types, we will be posting a special power training program for the 6 weeks leading up to the PTV ski race – we highly recommend you check back to the website for these workouts, because they are extremely effective at helping you make large, last minute fitness improvements that can help you take your ski fitness to a much higher level for a short period of time.  The Peak to Valley Power Training program will be posted the final week of December!

Training Program FAQ’s

Should I see a doctor before performing these workouts?

Everyone who participates in this program should see his or her Medical Doctor first because the workout intensities are vigorous, and will likely push your heart and lungs to their upper capacities.

How do I decide how many sets I should do of each exercise?

You will notice a range of sets for each exercise.  For example:

- 1-4 Sets of:  4(30 sec hard: 30 sec easy)

People who are relatively unfit and are not used to the type of workout that is assigned, should do the smallest amount of sets on the first week of the month, and then they can slowly increase the number of sets of they perform up until the mid range range of the recommended sets near the month’s end.  In the above example, a person who is 60 years old, and only works out 1-2 times per week already should start with one set of each for the first 2 weeks, then do 2 sets of each on the last 2 weeks.

People who are very fit can start at the mid range of the recommended sets and then slowly work up to the maximum recommended sets by the month’s end.  In the above example, you would start with 2-3 sets of each and progress to doing 4 sets on the 3^rd or 4^th week.

How do I decide how hard I should push myself/ what intensity I should do?

Your suggested intensities are included for your aerobic workouts.  For example, 7/10 intensity is a fairly hard intensity – you could only go for about 20-30 minutes at that pace, whereas 5/ 10 you could probably go for almost all day, and 10/10 you could only go for about 10 seconds.  The heart rate zones are also included for those who are familiar with them.  Come in and get a lactate with us if you want to learn more about them!

For your Anaerobic workouts, your pace is generally all-out.  If you don’t have much experience pushing yourself this hard, then you should be very careful not to push too hard at first.  You should warm up dynamically (Lunges, Squats, Twists, Leg swings, etc) and break a sweat before any of these workouts.

If the workouts don’t make sense…

Come on in for a session and we will teach you what everything means and how you should be doing the workouts!

January Weekly Schedule

  - 1 / Week:  Aerobic Power Workout

  - 1 / Week:  Anaerobic Threshold Workout

 - 1-2/ week:  Plyometric/ Ski Specific Prep

 - 1-2/ week:  Strength

 - 1 / Week:  Recovery

- 1-2 / Week:  Ski (For those that ski more, you don’t need to subtract workouts, but you should do less volume/ less sets of all exercises to avoid overtraining)

- Try the once per week peak to valley progression listed in a separate blog entry!

* Don’t Forget to only do 1/2 of the recommended exercises for the last week in January!  Your fitness will peak in the start of February!

 

 Workout Summaries

Aerobic Power Workout (Bike or Run)

- Warm Up – 20 minutes (Include submaximal sprints)

- Main Set:

- 2-4 Sets of:  6 X (30 sec hard: 15 off), Rest 3 minutes before repeating each giant set.

- HR Zone 4 or 8-9/ 10 effort

- Progress rest from 15 seconds to 0 seconds by your 6^th week.

- Do your most number of sets on the 2^nd or 3^rd week in January.

- Last week of January, perform only 1-2 sets.

- 10 minutes passive rest / with or without stretching.

- 1-3 Sets of:  6 X (60 sec hard: 30 off), Rest 3 minutes

- HR Zone 4 or 8/ 10 effort

- Do your most number of sets on the 2^nd or 3^rd week in January.

- Last week of January, perform only 1-2 sets.

- Cool Down – 10 minutes

 

Anaerobic Threshold Workout (Bike or Run)

- Warm Up – 15-20 minutes

- Main Set – 1-3 X 15 minutes at 7-8/ 10 intensity (HR Zone 3a)

- Cool Down – 10 minutes

- Stretch – 10-20 minutes

 

Recovery Workout (Bike, Run, Hike, Swim, Stability Workout, other)

- 30-60 minutes at easy pace

- 5-6 / 10 intensity or heart rate zone 1.

- Okay to add short sprints of 10-20 seconds every 5 minutes.

- No warm up or cool down necessary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plyometric/ Ski Specific Prep:

- Warm Up 20 minutes (Dynamic Warm Up – Squats, Lunges, Quick Drops, Submaximal Jumps)

- Main Set:

- 1-4 sets, Rest 2-3 minutes between each:

- Lateral Tuck Steps – 1 minute (rest only 1 minute between sets)

- Knees above the toes at all times – start high position, progress to low.

- Single Leg Square drill (3-5 laps), with speed followed by 1 minute of balance

- Lateral 2 Foot hops over 2 lines – 10/side.

- 2 lines, .6-1 meter apart.  Jump over one single line twice then your third jump is long over top of 2 lines to the other side.

- Count only the long jumps.

- Single Leg Lateral Jump (Skater’s Jump) – 16

- Be sure to be balanced and have good form before you take off for a new jump.

- Forward bounding tuck jumps – 10

- Lateral-Vertical Jumps with limited ground contact – 10

- Jump Laterally as far as you can, then jump vertically as high as you can with limited ground contact.

 

- Tuck Progression:

- Without taking any rest, do one large set of the following exercises (each exercise is 30 seconds):

- Tuck

- Lateral Tuck Steps

- Tuck

- Single Leg Tuck (30 sec./ leg)

- Tuck

- Tuck Jump – 10 jumps

- Tuck

- Quick steps in low tuck

- Tuck

- Tuck Up/ Downs

- Tuck

Strength Workouts 

- We offer weekly supervised strength sessions that are of high quality and great value.  At an entry cost of $100/ month, these sessions allow us to:

- Ensure you are performing your exercises and stretches correctly

- Make sure you are following the weekly program correctly

- Offer extra guidance that is specific to you (stretches, therapeutic exercises, diet tips, etc)

- Motivate you and help to make exercise a fun and social experience.

- In General, January’s strength sessions should emphasize lower repetitions (6-8/ set) with ample rest periods (>60 seconds) between sets to allow for full recovery.  Do anywhere from 2-4 sets of each exercise – more experienced trainees should perform more sets with heavier weights.  Try to do more sets per workout as the month progresses, then take it easy for the last week of the month.  In general, exercises should be full body in nature, performed quickly

Have Fun!

Dr. O

 

Lynn demonstrates how a jumping or plyometric exercise doesn’t have to be overly intense or aggressive. A nice low step like this one allows most moderate to advanced trainees to safely strengthen their fast twitch muscles, joints and connective tissue to prepare for winter sports.

Dr.O

Monthly Theme:  Flexibility

June’s theme is flexibility.  The high volumes of activity in June will add tension to the body – often in the wrong places.  Joint irritation from overuse and repetitious movements like running and cycling can make your flexibility even worse.

Poor flexibility can lead to increased tension in tendons, which leads to less blood flow, which can lead to poor healing of tissues, which leads to injury.  Poor flexibility also affects your posture, which can cause pain and muscle fatigue over time.  When your joints lack flexibility, the body has to compensate for those inflexibilities by overusing other joints and changing the way that it moves – this often creates pain in other joints for seemingly no reason.  Whenever something starts to hurt and you don’t know why, take a look at the neighboring joints and you may find the cause!

Flexibility becomes exceedingly important as we age; tasks that seemed simple when you were 50 can quickly become difficult at 70.  Maintaining a component of your fitness is always easier then improving it.  “Use it or lose it” is a good rule of thumb for every person as they age.

Notes for all stretches:

Stretches for healthy joints should typically be done at least 3 times per day to get improvements, and at least 2 times per week for maintenance.  Passive stretches should be done after exercise or when the body is warm, and held for 30-60 seconds at a time.  Before exercise, it is better to use active versions of these stretches where you use exercises that naturally stretch these joints while warming up the nerves and muscles at the same time.

Hip flexors:

The hip flexors are a group of muscles in the front of the hip.  They become tight with endurance types of activities like running, biking, or rowing and they also become tight with sitting.  Almost everyone would benefit from stretching his or her hip flexors more often.

When the hip flexors are tight, it puts more compression and torsion through the low back and pelvis while also putting more strain on the lower extremities making injury to the knees, ankles and feet also more likely.

How to do the stretch:

With one knee down and directly underneath you, turn your hips back like you are trying to pour water out the back of your pelvis.  This should create enough of a stretch for you; if not, you can lunge your hips slightly forward.  If you have to lunge far forward, you aren’t using your tummy enough!

Where to feel the stretch:

In the front of your pelvis and upper thigh.

Ankle Extension (Calf/ Achilles Stretch):

Proper ankle extension is essential to maintaining proper form for walking, running and squatting activities.  When they are tight (they are tight very often), it puts additional stress on the foot, knee, hip and pelvis.  Stretching the ankles into extension is a key treatment for many foot and ankle problems, the most common of which is plantar fasciitis.  Proper ankle flexibility can also allow the foot to sit more naturally on the ground and allow for better balance and coordination for sports.

How to do the stretch:

Place your foot onto a ramped surface and then move the knee toward the toe.  Do not let the knee move to the inside or outside, keep it in line, and be sure the arch of the foot does not collapse.   Do the stretch with a bent knee sometimes and with a straight knee sometimes.  This stretch may need to be performed more than other stretches in order to get results, as the ankle can be very stubborn to improvements.

Where to feel the stretch

Deep inside the ankle and in the back of the lower leg.

Shoulder Flexion:

Shoulder flexion is basically reaching the arms over the head.  Loss of shoulder flexion comes primarily from poor posture and not actually doing the motion enough.  Tight chest and back muscles make it even more difficult to do proper shoulder flexion.

The result of poor shoulder flexion is overuse of the neck, back and shoulder joint – which causes painful syndromes in each of these body parts.  It also makes doing overhead tasks at home very tiring; changing a light bulb or building some shelves at home can all of a sudden become an embarrassing activity to perform if you don’t keep up your shoulder flexibility!

How to do the stretch

Point the thumb up in the hitch hiking position, keep the arm perfectly straight, and raise the arm straight in front of you and over your head.  Use a doorway if you are standing or use a chair or Swiss ball in front of you if you are kneeling and add passive overpressure to push the arm back over your head.  Keep your tummy tight so you don’t just bend back in your back instead of the shoulder.

Where to feel the stretch

Different people will feel this stretch in different places, but in general you will feel stretching deep in the shoulder, in the chest, and also in latissimus muscles.

During my athletic career, I was impressed by the knowledge and understanding of the physical therapists that helped me.  Unfortunately, I almost always had to be injured before I would benefit from their expertise.  It made no sense to me to wait until I was hurt before addressing my physical weaknesses ; I wanted something more pro-active.  Prehabilitation (prehab) is the act of applying rehab principles to healthy individuals in order to prevent injury and enhance physical performance.

Rehabilitative principles are applied in a step-by-step fashion, to ensure that the body is not forced to do anything that it is not ready for.  I will outline some of these steps, and give you examples of why each could be important to you:

Reduce Pain and Inflammation

Pain or inflammation in a joint causes key muscles to be deactivated, as well leads to patterns of avoidance.  Running with a sore back for instance can train key stabilizing muscles not to work, leading to instability of the back long term, and can cause you to adopt habits that could make you a slower runner in the long term.

Ensure Proper Joint Motion and Stability

Tight ankles, especially one sided, can cause rotation through the entire body, cause unequal wear and tear of joints, overuse of other joints, and poor balance.  Weak hamstring muscles can increase your likelihood of tearing ligaments in your knee.

Efficient Movement and Posture

Your technique when you exercise determines which muscles get strong, which ones stay long and supple, which joints get stressed, and how tired you get.  Anti-inflammatory herbs or medications may help for your knee pain, but if the cause of the knee pain is the way you walk or run, then your pain will always recur.

Notice that none of the above steps have much to do with general fitness; someone can be very strong or fit, and still fail some of these steps.  Every day, people are exercising or performing simple daily tasks with limitations in the above categories, and those seemingly healthy activities can be making them unhealthy.  Don’t wait until you are unsatisfied with your physical health; learn about your physical limitations and what you can do about them right now.

Take a look at this clip which highlights some of the exercises that Mike did during his recent visit with Dr Oughtred, in Vancouver, BC.